Fieldays hold out the begging bowl
OPINION: When someone says “we don’t want a handout, we need a hand up” it usually means they have both palms out and they want your money.
The Hound is picking up a lot of negative feedback around the traps about the arrogant stance of National Fieldays organisers.
It’s obvious, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the cancellation of mass gatherings, a big event like Fieldays (due to be held in June) seems a remote, if not impossible, prospect of taking place.
However, despite this Fieldays is deliberately procrastinating about refunding those customers who have already forked out huge fees for this year’s event.
It is also putting heat on those exhibitors who have not paid yet – telling them to pay up now or miss out on securing a site for the 2021 event.
Compare this with Central Districts Field days, which had to cancel its event with less than one week’s notice yet still refunded 100% of exhibitor site fees immediately.
Surely, in these troubled times National Fieldays should be doing the right thing and refunding its exhibitors.
Federated Farmers says it is cautiously welcoming signals from the Government that a major shake-up of local government is on its way.
Ashburton cropping and dairy farmer Matthew Paton has been elected to the board of rural services company, Ruralco.
The global agricultural landscape has entered a new phase where geopolitics – not only traditional market forces – will dictate agricultural trade flows, prices, and production decisions.
National Lamb Day is set to return in 2026 with organisers saying the celebrations will be bigger than ever.
Fonterra has dropped its forecast milk price mid-point by 50c as a surge in global milk production is putting downward pressure on commodity prices.
The chance of a $10-plus milk price for this season appears to be depleting.

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